Case Study: First Municipal-Industrial Water Reuse Project In Virginia!

Hampton Roads Sanitation District was created in 1940 to reduce pollution in the Chesapeake Bay. It currently serves a population of approximately 1.6 million with nine regional wastewater treatment plants in Hampton Roads and four smaller plants on Virginia’s Middle Peninsula. HRSD set the goal to reuse its treated wastewater for nonpotable purposes in the 1980s. An oil refinery located next to their York River Treatment Plant approached HRSD in 1996 to supply reclaimed water for the refinery’s cooling and process water. Previously, the refinery utilized increasingly expensive potable water and upgrading its own treatment facilities was too large an investment. In December 2000, HRSD signed a 20-year agreement to provide the refinery with 0.5 MGD of reclaimed water